Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to automated customer service systems and, in particular, to an automated customer service that provides voice recognition capability so that a human customer service representative is not needed to serve the needs of television subscribers.
Description of the Related Art
Watching television has become a complicated process that requires viewers to be adept at navigating menus, remote control buttons, and feature settings. Adjusting TV-related settings is a major source of frustration for many viewers. In particular, elderly viewers may have difficulty reading and interpreting icons on remote control buttons and manipulating the buttons to step through menus displayed on the TV screen. In order to preserve their subscriber base, TV content providers (e.g., Dish Network®) maintain call centers to field customer service calls from subscribers regarding installed subscriber equipment. In response to a real or perceived equipment failure or an operational anomaly, a TV subscriber may contact the TV content provider customer service department, by telephone or e-mail.
Customer service is now one of the largest business expenses for TV content providers. One reason customer service is so expensive is that calls are fielded by human customer service representatives (CSRs). Yet, most TV service calls are for routine problems that are easy to troubleshoot and could be solved in an automated fashion without involving a human being. For example, historical records among TV content providers indicate that some of the most common customer service complaints are solved by simply replacing the subscriber's remote control batteries.
In the past, customer service protocols have been automated using a numerical telephone keypad as an interactive device. When a customer places a service call, choices are presented to the customer by a telephone recording. The call is then routed according to customer selections made by entering a number, or in some cases, by speaking a number or a prescribed phrase, with limited voice recognition. For example, a telephone caller may be directed through a series of menus to provide information about their problem and equipment set-up, so that initial steps of troubleshooting can be performed automatically without engaging the customer service representative. However, such a system can become another source of customer frustration, which just adds to subscriber dissatisfaction instead of alleviating it. As a result, subscribers often attempt to bypass the menu-driven telephone automation system so they can speak directly to a human customer service representative.